


Double, Double, Toil and Trouble

by la_topolina



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Angst, Drama, Fluff, Gen, Humor, Ilvermorny, Origin Story, School
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-11
Updated: 2020-07-10
Packaged: 2021-03-03 23:42:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 3
Words: 1,191
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24654046
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/la_topolina/pseuds/la_topolina
Summary: a story about a young thunderbird; a tale about severus snape; and a portrait of charity burbage.
Kudos: 4





	1. The Thrill is Gone

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Fourth year Thunderbird Miranda Rose gets bored easily.

The thrill was beginning to wear off.

Miranda sat on the hard stump in the middle of Professor Rodriguez’s office. She’d been there for twenty full minutes, drumming her heel against the base of her uncomfortable perch, waiting for him to look up from his scrolls and books to deal with her. Usually his rebuffs were like the ones she received from her father, stern, but tempered by laughter and admiration of her spirit. Today, the very air in the office was different, chilled through with disapproval. She suspected that she might have worn out her Head of House’s goodwill.  
  
“Stop kicking your seat,” Professor Rodriguez ordered without glancing up from his work.  
  
Miranda folded her legs under her, tailor style, and willed herself to be still the way that Papa had taught her on hunting trips.   
  
“Miss Rose, I do not know what I am to do with you,” he said.  
  
“I’m sorry, sir,” she replied penitently.  
  
“Don’t talk. I don’t want to hear your explanations. You are going to listen for once. I know that you are easily distracted, but there is no excuse for what you did today. You destroyed a classroom. You put your classmates, your teacher, the entire school in mortal peril. What in God’s name made you think that defying Professor Wright was the correct thing to do?”  
  
“I…I was bored.”  
  
“Bored?!”  
  
“I’m sorry, sir. I know I shouldn’t have done it. It’s just…the directions for the Exploding Potion seemed so simple, and I thought it would be more fun to make than the boring old Draught of Peace. I mean, why even bother to make that tired thing?”  
  
“If you wish to play fast and loose with your own life, that is your business. But the lives of your classmates and teachers are not yours to dispose of as you please. That should have been reason enough to follow instructions. Potions Class is not like Dueling. Your mistakes in Potions can have consequences that reach far beyond a trip to the Hospital Ward. How do you think you would feel if Mr. Lee and Mr. Clearwater perished due to your foolhardy behavior?”  
  
She shook her head miserably.  
  
“Miss Rose, I think you are aware that I am fond of you, and I give you more leeway than I probably should. But if you ever pull a stunt like that in Potions again, I will expel you—no questions asked.”  
  
“I understand sir.”  
  
“You will have detention with Professor Wright for the rest of the year, making weekly batches of the Draught of Peace.”  
  
“That’ll be a lot of Draughts.”  
  
“No more than usual. Professor Wright does it as charity work for the sisters at St. Elizabeth’s Clinic. Consider yourself fortunate that you have not experienced anything in life yet that would require a dose of it.”  
  
“Yes, sir.”  
  
“Now, get going. And try to stay out of here for at least a week.”  
  
“I’ll try, sir.”


	2. the sun whose rays are all ablaze

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Young Severus Snape only wants to learn from the best.

“I believe you heard me, Mr. Snape,” Nadia Angouleme pronounced.  
  
Severus tugged at the sleeve of his worn robes.  
  
“Surely there was nothing lacking in my work,” he protested, wincing at the way his voice cracked as he became angry. “I brewed every potion you tasked me with perfectly! I have answered every question you have put to me, met every task you have set me. Who are you going to take as apprentice if not me?”  
  
“No one. There was no one suitable this year. It is to be expected, the students produced these days are not what they once were. You may go.”  
  
She dismissed him with an elegant wave of her manicured hand. Insulted to the core of his being, Severus all but stomped to the door. This had been his chance to prove himself. There were other Potions Masters, but Madame Angouleme was the best of the best. If he walked away now, he was committing himself to work with a lesser Master. That was not acceptable in the least.  
  
“You are still here?” she asked.  
  
“Madame, with all due respect, may I ask what it is about my application that you find insufficient?”  
  
“Your work is exactly as it should be. You have much potential and, with proper guidance, you would make an extraordinary Potions Master.”  
  
“Then what is the trouble?”  
  
“It is your manner. You are rude in the extreme. For someone coming out of Slytherin House, I expected better. You have no understanding of deportment or decorum, and I refuse to work in close quarters with a student who is incapable of learning these things.”  
  
“I do not understand what manners have to do with learning Potions.”  
  
“They do not have much to do with it, per se. But they have everything to do with learning Potions from _me_. I demand decorum from my apprentices. When they are Masters themselves and on their own, their behavior is their own affair. But when they are under my direction, they will act according to my rules.”  
  
Severus swallowed his pride and nearly choked on it. “Madame, if I were to resolve these insufficiencies, would you reconsider your decision?”  
  
“But of course.”  
  
“It shall be done.”  
  
“I look forward to your next application.”  
  
He paused on his way out to ask, “Madame, is this requirement about your desire for pleasantries, or is it about your desire to show that you are in command?”  
  
“Does the sun give light, or does it give warmth? Good afternoon, Mr. Snape.”  


*****  


“Severus! What a surprise,” Narcissa Malfoy said as Lucius led him into the parlor.  
  
“He has a favor to ask,” Lucius laughed.  
  
“The solitary Severus Snape needs a favor? Do tell.”  
  
Severus glowered at Lucius and swallowed his pride for the second time that week.   
  
“Narcissa, I’ve come to take you up on your offer to act as a master of etiquette,” Severus muttered.  
  
“How perfectly delicious. What a charming apprentice you will be, I’m sure.”  
  



	3. Charity

It started slowly.   
  
A chessboard in the Staff Lounge.  
  
She moved a piece. He moved a piece. And so on.   
  
At first they weren’t even in the room at the same time.   
  
The board waited patiently and their game lasted for weeks.  
  
Later, she would move her piece when he came in for tea and the paper. She would take up her knitting and he would move his piece, paper still in hand, pretending not to notice her.  
  
Aurora asked her why she bothered—the new Potions Master was such a rude beast. But, when Charity looked at him, she only saw a very young man trying to live up to his own unreasonable expectations.   
  
One Saturday, he was waiting for her, two cups of tea in place, and a fresh game of chess awaiting. They played until dinner.

And one day after that, he asked her what she thought of _Othello_.  
  
He’d never bothered to take her class when he’d been a student, but they found quickly enough that they had plenty to discuss.   
  
By the end of the year, their game was a weekly event, never missed.   
  
  
And so it was until the week that she died.


End file.
